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VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Canucks raised Pavel Bure's No. 10 to the rafters before honouring the franchise's first superstar the best way they could—with a rocket-fast start.

Vancouver blitzed Toronto early and Roberto Luongo made 21 saves for his second shutout of the season Saturday as the Canucks defeated the Maple Leafs 4-0.

After a 20-minute ceremony to retire Bure's jersey, the Canucks came out flying, leading 1-0 on the scoreboard and 11-0 on the shot clock before the game was nine minutes old.

"It was a great performance from the first minute to the last," said Luongo, who was sporting the Canucks' Superman shirt for player of the game. "I don't even know why I'm wearing this ... a ton of guys deserve it more than me in this locker-room tonight. We really kept the puck in their zone and cycled and created some chances and were in there pretty much the whole game."

Known as the "Russian Rocket" for his lightning-quick speed, Bure would have been happy with the Canucks tempo early as Daniel Sedin opened the scoring for Vancouver after a frenetic opening few minutes that saw Toronto goalie James Reimer make a number of big saves.

"We weren't quite sure what was going to happen after the ceremony," said Luongo. "We were sitting there a long time but it was a great start for us."

Zack Kassian, Chris Higgins and Dan Hamhuis also scored for the Canucks (10-5-1), who rebounded from a disappointing 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday with one of their best efforts of the season.

"I know our guys weren't happy how we played against Detroit," said Vancouver head coach John Tortorella. "We just wanted to simplify our game, play quick and just get to our forecheck.

"No matter how long the ceremony was—and it was a fantastic ceremony—guys were focused on playing the game."

Henrik Sedin, who along with his brother signed a four-year contract extension worth US$28 million on Friday, picked up an assist on Daniel's goal to extend his point streak to 11 games (three goals, 10 assists).

Reimer kept the Maple Leafs (10-5-0) in it most of the night, making 43 saves for a Toronto team that was outshot for the 13th time this season and had its three-game winning streak snapped.

"It was a terrible game for us," said Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle. "Probably the worst game we have played this year."

Leading 1-0 after a raucous first period, Vancouver made it 3-0 with goals in quick succession early in the second.

Kassian made it 2-0 by firing a shot past Reimer that deflected in off Toronto defenceman Cody Franson at 2:07 on a play that might have cost the Maple Leafs more than a goal against. Gritty forward Dave Bolland suffered a laceration to his left leg on a hit by Kassian earlier in the sequence and had to be helped to the locker-room. He left Rogers Arena on a stretcher and was scheduled to have surgery later Saturday.

Carlyle said Bolland's situation was similar to the Achilles tendon injury that felled Ottawa Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson for a large chunk of last season.

"I don't know the severity or which tendon," said Carlyle. "But he did suffer a cut into that area."

Not surprisingly, Kassian said there was no intent on his part to injure Bolland on the play.

"I went in their hard to finish my hit, I don't know what happened but it was a clean hit," said Kassian. "I know it was clean."

Higgins then ripped a shot past Reimer on a 2-on-1 rush to make it 3-0 at 5:05 after rookie Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly misplayed the puck at the Vancouver blue-line.

After Toronto killed off a two-minute two-man advantage, Maple Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk was stoned by Luongo on a backhand chance on a power play late in the period that would have given his team life after 40 minutes.

Toronto was shorthanded three times in the first nine minutes of the third period, but Reimer kept his team alive before Hamhuis rounded out the scoring at 14:48.

With his team buzzing early in the first, Luongo had to stay sharp at the other end.

"I was getting antsy, sitting out there for 20, 25 minutes (for the Bure ceremony) and the first 10 minutes of the game not getting any shots," he said. "I had a lot of built up energy."

Reimer was strong early with four big stops just over four minutes in, including a miraculous desperation pad save on Alexandre Burrows that could be an early-season candidate for save of the year.

Vancouver finally got one past the Toronto goalie at 5:55 on the power play. The Canucks came into the game tied for 28th in the NHL with the man advantage but connected when Ryan Kesler's touch pass found Henrik Sedin in front. The Canucks captain rifled a shot that deflected in off Daniel Sedin for Vancouver's fifth power-play goal this season.

Toronto got its first shot of the night at 8:17, but Phil Kessel's effort from the slot was gobbled up by Luongo on what would be a long night for the Maple Leafs.

"It wasn't our sharpest game and they are a really good team over there," said Reimer. "They took advantage of the fact we weren't the best team."

Notes: Bure scored 254 goals and 224 assists in 428 games with Vancouver over seven seasons. ... Luongo's other shutout this season came against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 17. ... Daniel Sedin's goal in the first period was just the Canucks' second power-play goal at home this season. ... Saturday's game marked the return of Mason Raymond to Vancouver. The Maple Leafs forward, who spent seven seasons with the Canucks, was not offered a contract in the off-season and made the Toronto roster on a tryout. So far in 2013-14, the 28-year-old has five goals and six assists. ... Former Canucks tough guy Gino Odjick got a big ovation during Bure's ceremony. Also on hand was Pat Quinn, who was Bure's first coach with Vancouver.

Canadiens’ Pacioretty spent all of November playing on a broken foot

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Canadiens’ Pacioretty spent all of November playing on a broken foot

Max Pacioretty has a good reason for his slump throughout November: he was playing with a broken foot. Pacioretty found his groove to start December, though, with three goals and four points in four games.

The Canadiens’ major off-season move saw P.K. Subban shipped out to Nashville in exchange for Predators captain Shea Weber, and there have been rumblings that Montreal could be heading towards another major move at some point this season, this including captain Max Pacioretty.

While the rumor may sound far-fetched or bizarre, it wasn’t without reason. You see, Pacioretty, 28, was off to one of the slowest starts of his career and through the early part of the season he looked as though he was a shell of his former goal-scoring self. By the end of October, Pacioretty had just two goals. Come the end of November, he had increased that to just five. All the while, Pacioretty was watching his ice time fluctuate.

It’s near impossible to know exactly when the injury came, especially without Pacioretty outright saying when it occurred, but it’s not hard to believe that the veteran winger was fighting through injury over the course of the past month. Pacioretty has been one of the league’s most consistent goal scorers in the past four seasons.

From the start of the 2012-13 lockout shortened campaign until the culmination of the 2015-16 season, Pacioretty scored 121 goals, good for the ninth most in the league. His .43 goals per game rate over that span is the same as that of Jamie Benn’s and ranked ahead of Sidney Crosby, Rick Nash, James Neal, Vladimir Tarasenko, Evgeni Malkin and you get the point. This season, though, Pacioretty’s five goals through 23 games had his goals rate at roughly half of his rate of the past few seasons.

That has changed in early December, though. Since the calendar turned over, Pacioretty has been one of the hottest scorers in the Montreal lineup and a terror on the ice. In four games, he has a team-leading three goals and four points, no one has put more rubber on net than Pacioretty’s 15 shots and there isn’t a single forward in the lineup seeing more ice time or shifts. He broke out of his November-long slump in a big way, too, with a two-goal, three-point performance against the usually smothering Los Angeles Kings.

If Pacioretty is fully healed, and his recent performance seems to indicate as such, don’t expect those trade rumors to keep gathering much, or any, steam. Finding his form from past seasons makes him one of the best weapons in the Canadiens’ lineup and a potential game breaker as the season wears on.

John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

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John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

The New York Islanders captain undressed Jay Bouwmeester in the most unusual of ways, but the important thing is he kept the puck. Then he buried it

John Tavares: good at hockey.

The New York Islanders captain pulled off an absolutely stunning series of moves last night, culminating in a laser-shot goal against St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen. But let's get back to his humbling of Olympic gold medallist Jay Bouwmeester, because that's where the real magic happened.

Witness, as Tavares puts his stick behind his back and grabs it with his other hand while still skating and fending off Bouwmeester. Then, since he is a patient boy, Tavares waits and waits and waits before firing one top corner on Allen:

As the soccer folks would say, lovely. New York would go on to beat the Blues 3-2, with Anders Lee scoring the other two goals for the Isles. After struggling to begin the season, New York is now 6-2-2 in its past 10 games. Tavares leads the squad with 21 points through 26 contests.

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At least two teams are reportedly interested in acquiring the Sedins for their full cap hit and Canucks veterans could draw interest at the trade deadline. The Kings are looking to clear cap space by moving out Teddy Purcell.

The ongoing struggles of the Vancouver Canucks this season generated some speculation over possible roster moves.

By late-November, The Province's Jason Botchford suggested the Canucks could get an early start on deciding which players to move by the March 1 trade deadline. He felt veterans such as Ryan Miller, Alex Edler, Alexandre Burrows and perhaps even Daniel and Henrik Sedin could be on the move.

Botchford said he knows of two teams that would be willing to acquire the Sedins for their full combined salary-cap hit of $14 million. If the Canucks were to pick up part of that cap hit (which runs through 2017-18), he thinks more clubs would be interested.

The sticking point, of course, is the Sedins' willingness to be traded. So far, they've given no indication that they want out of Vancouver. As Botchford points out, such a move would likely have to take place in the off-season.

Even if the Canucks put the Sedins on the block, they're unlikely to fetch a significant return. While they're still putting up solid numbers (17 points in 26 games), the 36-year-old twins are well past their prime. Teams aren't going to give up a lot for a couple of fading stars. Picks and prospects, sure, but nothing that would immediately reverse the Canucks' fortunes.

As for Miller, he and Canucks management could be willing to work out a contract extension. Botchford's collegue Ben Kuzma doubts the Canucks place the 36-year-old goalie on the block by the trade deadline.

Kuzma notes Miller's stats aren't great this season. However, he feels he'll still be a good fit with Jacob Markstrom, buying some time until promising goalie prospect Thatcher Demko is ready to move up. He wonders if Miller might be agreeable to a two- or three-year deal worth between $4-$4.5 million per season. That's a significant pay cut from Miller's current $6-million annual salary.

Considering Miller's no longer an elite goaltender, he probably won't get much better than that on the open market. He could test next summer's free-agent market, but will likely find few decent offers. He could prefer to avoid uncertainty over his future by staying in Vancouver for a reasonable contract.

KINGS TRYING TO FREE SPACE WITH PURCELL MOVE

Los Angeles Kings left wing Teddy Purcell cleared waivers over the weekend. Signed as a free agent last summer to a one-year, $1.6-million contract, the 31-year-old managed only two points in 12 games this season. Illness and a lower-body injury sidelined him in October, and he was a healthy scratch in the Kings' last four games.

With 21 of 30 NHL teams carrying $2 million or less in cap space, moving Purcell's cap hit is difficult right now. The Kings obviously want to shed his salary without taking any back in a deal. They could be waiting until later in the season to find the right deal.

Rumor Roundup appears regularly only on thehockeynews.com. Lyle Richardson has been an NHL commentator since 1998 on his website, spectorshockey.net, and is a contributing writer for Eishockey News and The Guardian (P.E.I.).For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

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Fans want to see NHL players play at the Olympics, the players want to play in the tournament, but the NHL’s Board of Governors still needs some convincing.

If the NHL is going to send players to the Olympics, the NHL’s Board of Governors are going to need some convincing and they’re going to need it in rather short order.

It was reported around the World Cup of Hockey that the NHL had a mid-January deadline to decide on Olympic participation for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. And at the first day of Board of Governors meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., little more than a month from that deadline, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman didn’t make it sound as though the situation is all that positive in terms of the world’s best players heading to the tournament.

One of the sticking points for the Board of Governors, according to Bettman, was the impact the Olympics have on the NHL product.

"There are a lot of owners, clubs, over the years that have been very concerned about what Olympic participation does to the season, what it does to the players in terms of injuries, not just to those that go but having a compressed schedule can make the players more tired, more wear and tear, and the potential for injury is greater,” Bettman said, according to NHL.com’s Dan Rosen.

Even still, Bettman approached the IIHF’s assurance of covering the costs with skepticism and a warning that it doesn’t mean Olympic participation is green lit.

"We have been very clear to Rene Fasel at the IIHF and to Don Fehr at the [NHL] Players' Association that if the expenses aren't being covered, the League isn't paying for them and there really is nothing to talk about," Bettman said, according to Rosen. "Just because somebody may decide to pay for them, and to this point we don't actually know where that stands, that doesn't mean that it's a go.”

Bettman added that he wasn’t sure there was “even the money to cover what's been covered in the last Olympics,” regardless of what the IIHF would say. And even if everything fell in line for an Olympic participation proposal in the coming days, weeks or month, Bettman said it will still need the approval of the Board of Governors in order for the players to be sent to South Korea for the tournament.

"If there is something at some point to take to the Board, it will need an affirmative vote of the Board of Governors," Bettman said, according to Rosen. "I think it's fair to say that there is some strong negative sentiment in the room, but nothing was decided today.”